Search

Fibromyalgia refers to a painful type of rheumatological clinical syndrome, and its prevalence varies from 0.7% to 6.6%. This syndrome is associated with different physical and psychological symptoms, which ultimately leads to a decline in women's quality of life. A wide range of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions are conducted to mitigate these symptoms and improve the quality of life. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the effect of psychological interventions on the quality of life in women with fibromyalgia. This systematic review with comprehensive search was carried out on Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, and Scientific Information Database (SID), databases using the suitable keywords, and a total of 3125 articles from 2000 to 2019 were retrieved. Finally, the quality of 16 experimental and semi-experimental clinical trials was evaluated using the Jadad scale. The psychological interventions affecting the quality of life in women with fibromialgia included cognitive-behavioral therapy and behavioral therapy, coping strategies training, mindfulness, acceptance and commitment treatment, hypnosis, meditation, music therapy, short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy and writing emotions. The results of the study showed that except four studies, the studies generally improved the quality of life and reduced the symptoms in women with fibromyalgia. The results of the study suggest that most psychological interventions affect the quality of life in women with fibromyalgia. Therefore, besides pharmacological therapy, psychological interventions can be used by health-care providers to reduce the symptoms of fibromyalgia and improve the quality of their life., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Fear of childbirth is reported in 13% of fathers, and it may have adverse consequences for the fathers' health as well as their families. To reduce the fear of childbirth in the expectant fathers, an appropriate screening tool is needed. Due to the lack of a valid and reliable questionnaire to measure fathers' fear of childbirth, this study was conducted to develop the Fathers' Fear of Childbirth Scale and evaluate its psychometric properties., Methods: This mixed method study was conducted in two phases. In the qualitative phase (or item generation), semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 expectant fathers, and a literature review was performed to generate the Fathers' Fear of Childbirth Scale items pool. In the quantitative phase (or psychometric evaluation), reliability as well as face, content, and construct validity of this scale were evaluated. To establish construct validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. Reliability was evaluated through internal consistency and composite reliability measures., Results: The primary version of Fathers' Fear of Childbirth Scale contained 32 items, which were reduced to 17 items while establishing construct validity. Exploratory factor analysis extracted two factors, namely fear of childbirth process (12 items) and fear of hospital (5 items). These factors explained 50.82% of the total variance. Goodness of fit indices within the confirmatory factor analysis was acceptable. Internal consistency and composite reliability indices of all the factors were greater than 0.70., Conclusion: The Fathers' Fear of Childbirth Scale has a suitable validity and reliability for assessing fear of childbirth in fathers. It is a simple report instrument that can be easily implemented by health care professionals.

Introduction: A person's sexual satisfaction reflects their judgment and analysis of their own sexual behavior. Factors that affect sexual satisfaction vary in different societies and cultures., Aim: This study investigated the determinants of sexual satisfaction in women referred to health centers in Sari, north of Iran, in 2016., Methods: This cross-sectional study investigated 490 women who had been referred to health centers in 2016 and who were qualified for the study; the population was selected using convenient sampling method., Main Outcome Measure: The main outcome of this study was sexual satisfaction that assessed by the Larson's sexual satisfaction questionnaire. Other Data were 2 questionnaires: the general health questionnaire-28 and a researcher-made questionnaire developed on factors related to sexual satisfaction. Data were analyzed with IBM SPSS software using the one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficient, and t-test. To determine the predictors of sexual satisfaction, all the significant independent variables were incorporated into a linear regression model., Results: The average age of the women in this study was 33.6 years, and average sexual satisfaction score was 99.26. The results of the linear regression model showed that the spouse's job as a laborer (P = .003), a low income (P < .002), insufficient income of the spouse (P < .001), and dissatisfaction with being a woman (P < .001) were the main social determinants of sexual satisfaction (r 2  = 0.54)., Conclusion: It can be concluded from the findings of this study that several factors influence women's sexual satisfaction. The main social determinants of women's sexual satisfaction were dissatisfaction with their gender, the spouse's job as a laborer, low income, and insufficient income. Sexual healthcare providers can play a prominent role in increasing women's sexual satisfaction, thereby, improving the quality of their sexual life by identifying and discussing ways to control them. Afzali M, Khani S, Hamzehgardeshi Z, et al. Investigation of the Social Determinants of Sexual Satisfaction in Iranian Women. Sex Med 2020;8:290-296., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Little is known of depressive symptoms in Iranian women at midlife. This population-based study was undertaken to document the prevalence of, and factors associated with, depressive symptoms using validated questionnaires., Methods: A total of 1,520 community-dwelling women, aged 40 to 64 years, residing in Sari, Northern Iran, were recruited, using multistage cluster sampling, to this cross-sectional study, between October 2016 and April 2017. Participants completed the Menopause Quality of Life Questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, and the World Health Organization Well-being Index., Results: Participants' mean age was 49.1 (7.0) years and 88.7% were married. Overall, 167 (11%) women had moderate-severe depressive symptoms, 837 (55.1%) had low psychological well-being, and 172 (11.3%) reported taking psychotropic medication in the prior month. Factors independently associated with moderate-severe depressive symptoms included moderate-severe vasomotor symptoms (VMS) (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 2.6, 95% CI, 1.5-4.6; P = 0.001), age 60 years or older (AOR = 1.9, 95% CI, 1.1-3.5; P = 0.03), body mass index 30 to 39 kg/m (AOR = 1.8, 95% CI, 1.0-3.1; P = 0.04), and housing insecurity (AOR = 5.6, 95% CI, 3.7-8.3; P < 0.001). Education beyond high school was associated with a lower risk (AOR = 0.5, 95% CI, 0.3-0.9; P = 0.04). Women reporting low marital satisfaction (19.2% of married women) were more likely than women who were very satisfied to have moderate-severe depressive symptoms (AOR = 27.9, 95% CI, 10.5-74.2; P < 0.001)., Conclusions: Marital relationship dissatisfaction, reported by one in five women, was strongly associated with moderate-severe depressive symptoms in women at midlife in Iran, in addition to moderate-severe VMS, housing insecurity, obesity, and older age.

Background: Treatment for breast cancer can give rise to complications with important psychological impact. One change in patients regards body image. The aim of this research was to study the effect of a midwifery-based counseling support program on the body image of breast cancer survivors. Materials and Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, the study population was constituted by 80 breast cancer patients referred to Tuba Clinic in Sari, north of Iran, randomly assigned to two groups. Inclusion criteria included breast cancer diagnosis, mastectomy experience, age of 30 to 60 years, primary school education or higher, being married, and receiving hormone therapy. The Body Image Scale and Beck Depression Inventory were completed by intervention and control groups prior to the intervention and again afterwards. This program was implemented to the intervention group (two groups each consisting of 20 patients) for six weekly sessions, each lasting 90 minutes. The collected data were analyzed suing SPSS through Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon tests. Results: The results showed that the average age of participants in the intervention and control groups were 46.8 ± 6.85 and 48.9 ± 5.86, respectively. Body image scores in the intervention and control groups before the support program were respectively 21.82 ± 1.66 and 21.7 ± 1.48, and after the support program they were 7.05± 2.70 and 22.92 ±1.49, respectively. Therefore, the results indicate that the support program was effective in improving body image. Conclusion: This study showed that the support program had a positive effect on the body image of patients. Therefore, it is suggested that it should be used as an effective method for all breast cancer survivors., (Creative Commons Attribution License)